Global bifurcations in a laser with injected signal: Beyond Adler's approximation

We discuss the dynamics in the laser with an injected signal from a perturbative point of view showing how different aspects of the dynamics get their definitive character at different orders in the perturbation scheme. At the lowest order Adler's equation [Proc. IRE 34, 351 (1946)] is recovered. More features emerge at first order including some bifurcations sets and the global reinjection conjectured in Physica D 109, 293 (1997). The type of codimension-2 bifurcations present can only be resolved at second order. We show that of the two averaging approximations proposed [Opt. Commun. 111, 173 (1994); Quantum Semiclassic. Opt. 9, 797 (1997); Quantum Semiclassic. Opt. 8, 805 (1996)] differing in the second order terms, only one is accurate to the order required, hence, solving the apparent contradiction among these results. We also show in numerical studies how a homoclinic orbit of the Sil'nikov type, bifurcates into a homoclinic tangency of a periodic orbit of vanishing amplitude. The local vector field at the transition point contains a Hopf-saddle-node singularity, which becomes degenerate and changes type. The overall global bifurcation is of codimension-3. The parameter governing this transition is theta, the cavity detuning (with respect to the atomic frequency) of the laser. (c) 2001 American Institute of Physics.